Apply Equal Weight in Gradebook Category
Equal Weighting
Gradebook categories and weighting can help calculate multiple assessments as one evaluation percentage (More information on Categories and Weighting). When those multiple assessments have different denominators or 'scores' the weighting feature treats them as having different values that contribute unless the "Equal Weight" selection is enabled. Equal Weight will only be applied to those categories for which it is selected.
Equal weight will treat scores with different point values as if they were scored out of 100%, equalizing all of the scores out of 100 and then applying those to the calculation for the weighted percentage for the course.
Equal weight also allows the "Drop Lowest" or "Keep Highest" options to be enabled even though the scores are of different values.
Equal Weight Math
Breaking down the math of equal weight requires us to understand the math of how weighting math happens in Gradebook.
Using an example of a Gradebook Category with four quizzes coming from Tests & Quizzes, the total score of each quiz is calculated by adding up the total number of points of the questions in each quiz. Let’s say these are the totals of your four quizzes:
Without equal weight: Quiz 1 = 100 points Quiz 2 = 100 points Quiz 3 = 100 points Quiz 4 = 250 points
The total value of this Category is 550 points. Quiz 4 at 250 points is worth two and a half times as much as each of the other three quizzes at 100 points. What if you would prefer each quiz to be worth equal amounts: 25% of the whole Category? What would the math look like?
Using the Equal Weight feature would mean that each quiz would be translated into a grade out of 100%, regardless of the max score:
With Equal Weight enabled: Quiz 1 = 100 points: score calculated out of 100 Quiz 2 = 100 points: score calculated out of 100 Quiz 3 = 100 points: score calculated out of 100 Quiz 4 = 250 points: score calculated out of 100
The total value of this Category with Equal Weight enabled is 400, meaning each quiz is calculated at 25% of the total weight of the category.
Without Equal Weight:
With Equal Weight:
Adapted from UNC Sakai 20 documentation.
More questions about the Gradebook tool?
This page is adapted from an equivalent Sakai Community help article.
The original Sakai Community help article, unedited, is available at https://sakai.screenstepslive.com/s/sakai_help
